I have generally done well with extended warranties.
I don’t always buy them, but when I have I’ve typically used them.
I had one for my car, and it paid for a 2k plus repair.
I purchased one for another car, and was able to transfer it to the new owner when I sold it. They used it for multiple huge repairs.
I had just purchased one for my AC, and not 2 weeks later I needed a $2100 or so repair. They had to order some big part, so it didn’t get fixed for about 7 days, but we were on vacation, so we didn’t “feel the pain.”
I have one for my washer and dryer, and just used it for my dryer. This time it was a royal pain. They came three times, I had to wait about a week from the time I called each time, they were supposed to come once but never showed up, and they were way off in their time predictions.
The warranty I currently have is with Sears. It expires this month. The repair guy said I should definitely renew the warranty, because I was very likely to have a huge part go bad in my washer (bearings maybe, I can’t remember).
Now I’m trying to decide if I should buy the warranty or not. I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth on the warranties I’ve had.
What kind of experiences have others had?
Place I’m considering getting warranty is Sears this time.
Never get them. Have always seen the advice to NOT purchase them.
I have only had two extended warranties–on cars. One I got Oldmobile to give it free because I said my car was a lemon, considering how many things broke so soon after I bought it. I bought one for my Toyota van too.
I had a transmission replaced for each warranty, so definitely it was a good thing. I have never bought any other warranties on vehicles. Definitely never bought warranties on phones or any appliances
Have had a few repairs on washer and dryer–all very low priced repairs. Last time dryer was repaired for under $100–broken belt. My washer and dryer is about 26 years old.
In the recent past…the only extended warranty I had was given to me by BJs for my glasses. They actually bought it for me because I had so many repairs in the first two months. Coating scratching!
We got one on our treadmill a few years back. Best purchase EVER! Two years ago, our son somehow smashed the display. We told the technician what happened when he came for the annual tuneup. We were 100% honest that it was our son’s fault, but the guy managed to get a brand new display unit for us! Then a few weeks ago, the unit ground to a halt, and the technician installed a new motor and controller! I think he likes us, because we actually USE the treadmill. My husband runs on it 6 or 7 times a week. The technician says this unit is the only one left in southern Maine.
Obviously good if you buy and use and bad if you do not buy and need. One never knows…
In my life the opposite always seems to happen. If I bought, it is not used. If not bought, was needed! D…m!!
Warranties on appliances used to mostly be a good deal for those who sold them. I think the tide has turned. Just had three almost new high end appliances repaired under warranty, including an 11 month old dryer with a dead electrical panel. The quality of appliances seems to be way down. I find the warranties sold at point of purchase from a local appliance store, with them doing the service and navigating the warrantee company all too worthwhile. Check the specific coverage and how it is administered. Hope others have better luck.
Our electric utility sells a policy covering furnace, air conditioner, and all appliances for about $30/mo. That is worthwhile if your appliances are old. Otherwise we rely on Amex or MC warranty extensions of 1-2 years. Car policies are never worthwhile, except the original ones offered in the 1980’s. Back in those days Ford (and others) sold 7 year bumper to bumper, unlimited mileage policies - great if you drove a lot.
We almost always buy them. Just bought 2 new kitchen appliances in the last month or so - an additional $99 for 4 more years of warranty - heck yes! Appliances are too disposable. We were able to get the appliances on sale and that more than paid for the extended warranty. Between cars, electronics and appliances, we have used the extended protection many times over.
Not sure I would get a warranty from Sears. Their days could be numbered. Many credit card companies DOUBLE the manufacturers warranty. Check with yours, if you aren’t sure. Also check out companies like American Home Shield and the like, who cover your furnace, water heater, appliances including washer and dryer. Cost is somewhere in the $500 per year range with a $75 fee per service call.
Be careful for warranty programs for HVAC. Generally the firms use/hire the cheapest and least experienced techs that the can find. The fix may work in the short run, but it may not be efficient, costing you more electricity or a another breakdown later.
The AmEx Costco card added an extra year of warranty for each of our kids’ laptops. Both of them had laptops die within the AmEx extended warranty period. AmEx had them mail in the laptops (and paid for the shipping & evaluation) and declared both dead and paid full refunds for both. That was worth close to $2K for us!
The extended warranties most CCards we have only double the manufacturer’s written warranty for up to an extra year and there are specific exclusions, including medical equipment. Read carefully to be sure you know what you have and what you are trying to decide whether to buy. We were never happy with the repair folks from Sears–the guy was an idiot and really not helpful. We have had a lot more success with the appliance repair person that our property manager uses and ask him when we need an appliance repair and he gets the repair person to show up on our schedule. That guy is cheaper and more reliable. We have replaced our fridge and dishwasher several times. We have never bothered to fix either. We are keeping our original maytag washer & dryer–the repair guy says that they really don’t make quality like the ones we have and they are in good shape and 26+ years old.
As usual here, we have lots of different perspectives. That’s why I like you guys so much 
Thanks for the info. and stories.
I have had American Home Shield for my home appliances and had switched to Sears home warranty (also known as Cross Country) since the last two years. For me it has been worth it. It covers all my stainless steel kitchen appliances, washer, dryer, heating, air conditioning, and plumbing. I also get two free inspections a year which my community requires. One in the fall for heating and one in the spring for cooling. I pay a $60 deductible for each repair visit. For plumbing they cover up to three issues for that $60. In the past year I had problems with my refrigerator. Had I not had the warranty I would have had to replace it. I had work done on my dryer. I had mixing valve problems with my water heater during winter time which resulted in us having only cold water in our taps and showers. All of this was covered by warranty. It saves time having to find a reliable contractor when things go wrong. I have one phone number for all my house maintenance issues. I have heard that BG& E all offers a similar warranty.
I purchased a 2 year old used car. I received an extended warranty of 5 years/50,000 miles.
I have never purchased individual warranties for one item when it comes to home appliances.
The general rule of thumb is that extended warranties don’t pay, that if the extended warranty is affordable enough to make it worthwhile it is likely the product won’t break (the cost of those policies is based on the risk of needing them repaired). Some things it makes sense, when my son bought a laptop for school I got the warranty program, because it covered not only defects but also covered things like if the screen cracked, and within a year of buying it, the laptop died and he got a new computer because they couldn’t fix it.
I didn’t find it useful on appliances. We have a service plan through the gas company on our furnaces, and they cover fixing the units if they break. The downside of those plans, as we found out with our central AC, is that when major stuff goes (like the compressor), they don’t cover it, they basically with the really major repairs will tell you you need to replace it.
With cars, to be honest, I don’t think the extended warranties are worth it. If a car is a lemon, it likely will break down during the bumper to bumper period, and major powertrain stuff is covered by the powertrain period (which is like 70k-100k miles). These days, if a car last beyond the initial manufacturers warranty and isn’t having problems, it likely will stay reliable. Many of those service plans are expensive and don’t cover things you have to pay for anyway, things like tires and belts and hoses, cam belts and so forth, and with what you pay for them, you likely will pay more in premiums then you get back. Not to mention that once a car gets to a certain age, you likely would be thinking of replacing it rather than fixing major stuff that goes, so would the warranty be worth it? I have gotten extended warranties on tvs and have yet to use one.
You folks have some bad luck with appliances! Of every appliance I’ve bought since I got married (that’s 40 years ago), I’ve had only one bad experience, a dishwasher that broke (and couldn’t be repaired) right after the warranty expired. Everything else lasted a normal lifespan, with a handful of modest repairs here and there on a couple of them. I’ve always followed Consumer Reports’ long ago advice to eschew extended warranties on appliances. So far as I know, that’s still their advice. As for autos, all the extended warranties I’ve ever looked into seem to exclude anything that’s actually likely to go wrong.
My appliances are old so for me having the coverage for all my appliances is worth it. My home is 20 years old.
We have saved on repair costs by having a warranty. The cost of the warranty is probably the cost of one repair a year and with the free cooling and heating inspections that are included it was worth it. Our home association is very particular about maintaining our community so I have neighbors paying $175 just for these two inspections. My coverage also includes garage opener repairs and garbage disposal. I call it my peace of mind plan.
In my experiences, appliances don’t last as long as they used to and manufacturer’s warranties are shorter and more limited than they used to be. I think whether or not an extended warranty is worth it partially depends on the initial cost of the item. I did go ahead and buy a 10 year extended warranty for my new fridge (got one that includes repairs to ice maker!!) as the cost of replacement vs. cost of the warranty made sense. I expect a refrigerator to last 10 years, and know from my previous nightmare with a very pricey Bosch that repair costs can be $$$$ once you’re out of warranty.
My experiences with dishwashers, however, are another story. I’ve gotten to the point where I just buy the cheapest one and treat them as semi-disposable, expecting to replace them every 3-4 years as they never seem to last longer than that. I don’t bother with a $100 extended warranty on something I’m not likely paying more than $350 for to begin with.
It also depends on the cost of the product and what the product is. On things like tv sets, I doubt an extended warranty is worth it, with the price tag of tv’s these days and how reliable they are, the extened warranty is likely not worth it. On major appliances, especially expensive ones, they may be worth it, and for things like heat and AC systems having a service plan (which I don’t consider an extended warranty, there is a difference) to me is worth it. The only problem with service plans is they decided what they can and can’t repair, so if you have an old furnace and the heat exchanger cracks, they will tell you to get a new furnace. If you have central air and the compressor goes, they don’t cover that, they won’t replace it so you basically end up needing to get a new system installed.
For me, I didn’t bother with things like my refrigerator or dishwasher. With my dishwasher, my Bosch units have tended to last, so by the time they go, I likely would buy a new unit rather than get it repaired. I have a subzero fridge that is now 20 years old, and when the guts of it died, I spent around 1500 bucks getting the compressor and condensor and such replaced, which was less than any decent replacement fridge I could get (not a subzero, obviously, the model I have these days would be around 6k), so it was worth it to have it rebuilt like that.
We’ve had extended warranties on our last two Honda minivans (we got big discounts on the warranties by shopping around). The first one paid for itself with two minor repairs and when the van was totaled Honda prorated the cost of the warranty by the miles on the van and refunded us over $200. The second one has also paid for itself and we have another 15k to go. Also with relatively minor repairs. Minivans are expensive to fix.
We’ve never purchased appliance warranties except once for the fridge. Got a new ice maker out of that, but it’s broken again and the warranty has expired. The part is nearly $200 but I could replace it myself. In the last year we’ve had the circuit board on the washer die. A reconditioned part was $90 and it was easy to replace. A service call and a new part would have been more than half the cost of the washer, which was 3.5 yrs old. Also have less than four year old kitchen appliances. Dishwasher had a part of the door hinge mechanism break last week. Cheap part, easy to replace but not happy. They aren’t lasting like you’d expect of expensive appliances. Still, what I’ve paid in repairs has still been cheaper than the warranties would have been.
Cell phones–we bought four new iPhones a couple years ago and were offered warranties through T-Mobile. The cost of those warranties over two years was equal to the cost of 1.5 new phones. A good case is much cheaper.